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Character languages
"Languages" redirects here. If you are looking for other languages of Lostpedia, please see Lostpedia:Languages. Every character on ''Lost speaks some form or variant of a language, with the exception of Vincent. The predominant language spoken on the original broadcasts of the show is American English, though variants of this language, as well as entirely different languages are used, often with English subtitles. Every main character on the show speaks at least some English. Several characters can speak up to four other languages on the show besides English (Naomi, Mikhail, and Danielle). Characters and languages Below is a list of main and supporting characters who speak languages other than English. Accents }} Many characters have distinctive accents when speaking English, showing their countries of origin. Charlie speaks with an English accent, and is able to tell that Naomi hails from Manchester as well, judging from her Northern accent. Michael is able to discern this fact about Naomi as well, presumably judging from his time spent with Charlie. Some members of the Hostiles also use British accent while speaking. Desmond uses a clear Scottish accent, an accent also used by many of his flashback characters. Desmond's ex-fiancee Ruth speaks with a slight Irish accent. Charles Widmore, as portrayed by Alan Dale, has an Australian accent. }} Sawyer speaks English with a distinctive Southern accent (having hailed from Alabama). This is easily discernable by his fellow survivors, and sometimes draws insults from other survivors ("redneck man", "hillbilly"). Several characters speak English with a clear Australian accent. Claire is perhaps the most obvious of these, along with her family and most of her flashback characters, including Carole Littleton, Richard Malkin, and Lindsey. Captain Gault and Hendricks from the Kahana also speak with an Australian accent. Most Australian characters feature a New South Wales variation of Australian accents. Several other characters speak with accents on the show. Jin and Sun speak English with a slight Korean accent, while Danielle Rousseau, as well as Robert and Montand, speak English with a French accent. Eko speaks with a deep, West African timbre, and his brother Yemi speaks English similarly. Frank Lapidus speaks with a Yankee accent. Caesar speaks English with an apparently French accent. Ilana seems to use an as-yet unidentified European accent. Most other characters speak English with an American accent. It is worth noting that Latin is pronounced with a strong English accent even by supposedly native speakers, understandable however given the peculiarities of the language. The most distinctive difference is vowels. Classical pronunciation gives a unique sound to each vowel (like Italian or Spanish), whereas when Claudia is asked "Ago nomine appelarus?" ("what's your name"), -us in "appelarus" gives away an English accent: "u" should always sound as in "put". Language barriers }} Language barriers have caused some issues between characters of the show, because they are unable to understand one another. The most notable victim of a language barrier was Jin, because he was unable to speak English while his fellow castaways were. Sun had pretended to be unable to speak English, but was later revealed to be able to. Jin later began overcoming this barrier with the help of Sun. By three years later, Jin was perfectly fluent in English. Another, more minor, language barrier existed between Ben and the Bedouins after he turned the frozen wheel and ended up in the Sahara desert. While being held at gunpoint, Ben tried to speak English with the two of them, and they appeared to not understand. Ben then began speaking Turkish, asking them wether they knew Turkish (tr: Türkçe biliyor musunuz?). After incapacitating both of them, Ben learned that one did speak at least partial English (Surrender!). He sarcastically noted this, and then knocked out the Bedouin with the butt of his gun. In an ironic twist, Sun loses the ability to speak English when she hits her head while running from The Man in Black. Later Jack explains to everyone that even though she speaks Korean she can still understand them, though she quickly overcomes her language barrier by writing in English on a notebook. Hiding a language }} Another minor recurring theme is a character keeping a language secret. The most notable occurrence was Sun's knowledge of English. She kept this a secret from her husband and the other survivors. She couldn't live with the same language barrier her husband lived with and finally opened up to Michael, whilst trying to defend her husband. After a short period, she unwillingly had to admit the truth to Kate, after it became clear she had understood a comment by Kate in English. Her final act was revealing it to everybody at the beach, in order to keep her husband and Michael from fighting. Jin at first thought of this as a betrayal, but eventually accepted it as an advantage over his barrier. He used her as translator and as an English teacher. }} Another minor occurrence was Charlotte's knowledge of Korean. She reacted in a way that made Jin suspicious that she may understand his and Sun's conversation, while journeying to and at the Staff. He finally confronted her, revealing that he saw through her, and demanded a safe place on the Kahana for Sun. Jin later used Charlotte as a translator, when trying to communicate with Sawyer's group during the time flashes. Secret languages }} The Others' have been shown to use multiple secret languages, most notably Latin. The first mentioning of this was when Cunningham and Jones were held hostages by Locke, Sawyer and Juliet, who used to communicate so their captors won't understand them, though they were understood by Juliet, who being a former Other spoke the language and successfully revealed them as Others. Juliet later explained that the reason the Others speak Latin is because they consider it "the language of the enlightened". Richard Alpert was also shown to speak it, when answering to Ilana's question, "What lies in the shadow of the Statue?" Beside Latin, the Others have also used Russian to communicate among themselves. It was used by Beatrice Klugh and Mikhail Bakunin when they were captured by Sayid, Locke and Kate at the Flame, Bea used it to ask Mikhail to shoot her, something that he hesitantly does. Dogen used Japanese to speak with Lennon even though he spoke and understood English perfectly. Though he claims that he doesn't speak it because he doesn't like the language, his usage of Japanese had the same role as the Others' previous uses of Latin and Russian, as only he and Lennon understood what Dogen said. Translators }}Many of the characters on the show have worked as translators for others, thus helping them overcome a language barrier. Some, such as Charlotte's translator, worked as professional translators. The most prominent example are the people that translated English to Jin and Jin's Korean for others. This role primarily belonged to Sun, though after her departure from the Island , Jin used Charlotte as his translator revealing to the rest of the survivors that she spoke Korean. Another prominent example includes the survivors using Shannon to translate Rousseau's distress call and later Shannon helping Sayid translate Rousseau's maps and notes. }} Lennon was an Other who translated for Dogen, though he didn't translate English back to Dogen, who later revealed that he actually spoke the language, though preferred to speak Japanese. In the flash-sideways world, Sayid works as a translator for an oil company , and Mikhail translates Korean for Martin Keamy in his conversation with Jin and Sun. es:Lenguas de los personajes he:שפות דמויות ru:Языки персонажей Category:Lists Category:Characters